Bojan Jovanovski

The private national TV station 1TV ceased airing its signal on Wednesday, unofficially due to major financial problems that have piled up since its informal chief, Bojan Jovanovski, known by the stage name Boki 13, was arrested late in July.

The TV station's main entrance on Friday was padlocked and its frequency blank, although its web page stayed active.

The parliamentary commission in North Macedonia on appointments and dismissals at Thursday's closed session unanimously supported the dismissal of the suspended chief of the Special Prosecution, Katica Janeva, who has been detained in relation to the "Extortion" scandal. All 13 MP members of the commission voted for her dismissal.

Police in North Macedonia arrested outgoing chief special prosecutor Katica Janeva on Wednesday, the latest twist in a scandal rocking the government and undermining the credibility of the country's anti-corruption drive.

Organised crime prosecutors in North Macedonia grilled the outgoing chief special prosecutor Katica Janeva for four hours on Tuesday over her alleged involvement in the so-called 'Extortion' affair that has rocked the country for weeks.

"The investigation should have reacted much sooner. It should have summoned Janeva for questioning; that is the least they could have done," a lawyer in Skopje told BIRN on Thursday on condition of anonymity.

North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has come under fire for calling the detained celebrity-turned-businessman Bojan Jovanovski, the central figure in the ongoing "Extortion" scandal, a "faggot".

His use of the abusive term has been widely condemned by human rights organisations and media associations in the country.

Signalling his impatience with the unfolding "Extortion" scandal that has rocked North Macedonia in recent days, President Stevo Pendarovski on Monday called on prosecutors investigating it to "leave their summer vacations aside and get to work" in order to uncover the facts.

The Italian newspaper La Verita on Saturday published a third batch of audio recordings on YouTube - like the first two relating to North Macedonia's so-called extortion scandal - in which Prime Minister Zoran Zaev is mentioned for the first time.

The Italian newspaper La Verita, which on Thursday published a video of two suspected extortionists and their alleged victim, says the voice of the embattled chief of the Macedonian Special Prosecution, Katica Janeva, can be heard on its new upload on YouTube - which consists of eight recordings.